Tag: nfc mobile payments

Gartner has just released research that suggests that the adoption of the technology has held back growth in other areas.

Though money transfers have been booming over mobile, Gartner has just published the results of its latest research which have indicated that the adoption of NFC technology has been adequately poor that it is actually holding back the growth of smartphone based payments around the globe.

They have, however, predicted that mobile money transfers will continue their growth at least through 2017.

Though technology and banking giants had had very high hopes for tap-and-pay and contactless payments over smartphones, when all is said and done, NFC technology has proven to be nothing more than a disappointment over the last while and, according to the report, has hindered the growth of the overall mobile payments market worldwide. At the same time, the report also indicates that there are still some bright spots and there is still some potential for future use by consumers.

The Gartner report said that NFC technology tremendously held back the value of transactions over smartphones.

Gartner explained that due to NFC technology, the value of transactions completed via smartphone “has been reduced by more than 40 percent throughout the forecast period due to disappointing adoption of NFC technology in all markets in 2012 and the fact that some high-profile services, such as Google Wallet and Isis, are struggling to gain traction.”

The forecasts that Gartner is now making state that NFC technology will now make up only 2 percent of the total transaction value for mobile payments this year and that by 2017, it will represent only 5 percent of the total. It does see that there is the potential for faster growth in 2016 when there is greater penetration of enabled smartphones and contactless readers.

What does seem evident to the company’s analysts as well as to other observers in the industry is that the greatly hyped NFC technology will not be revolutionizing mobile payments as had once been the general belief. It has been facing far too many struggles on a great number of levels both from the side of the devices and the payment terminals to take off at any time in the very near future.

Morpho NFC-enabled SIM cards could make mobile payments more available

Morpho, a developer of SIM cards for mobile devices, has announced that it will be supplying a new brand of NFC-enabled SIM cards to the MobiPag project, which is based in Portugal. The MobiPag project comes from a consortium of Portuguese companies that have a strong interest in mobile payments. These companies are eager to see mobile payments become more common throughout the country and believe that NFC SIM cards may be the best way to see this hope become a reality.

NFC technology continues attracting criticism

NFC technology is one of the most important tools in the world of mobile commerce. Most of the world’s mobile payments platforms have been based on this technology in the past. The technology itself is relatively simple, as it allows for digital information to be collected and transmitted over short distances. NFC technology has been the target of harsh criticism for its uses in mobile payments recently, largely due to the low availability of NFC-enabled mobile devices.

NFC SIM cards could help draw more people to mobile payments

Because most mobile payments services are based on NFC technology, only mobile devices that are equipped with the technology can make use of these services. NFC-enabled mobile devices are still quite rare throughout the world, effectively limiting the number of people that can participate in mobile commerce in any significant way. An NFC-enabled SIM card could solve this problem, however, as such a card would give a mobile device NFC capabilities without actually being equipped with the technology.

Simple solution may yield powerful results

Morpho believes that its NFC-enabled SIM cards will help draw more consumers into mobile payments through the MobiPag project. These consumers will be able to make payments with nothing more than their mobile device thanks to these SIM cards. Overall, this solution may lead to a major surge in Portuguese mobile payments that could establish the country as one of the most active mobile commerce hubs in the world.